Orioles obsession with hoarding waiver claims could bite them early in 2026

Every year, the Baltimore Orioles are very active on the waiver wire. It's not uncommon to see them claim and DFA the same player multiple times during the offseason. They've also made a habit of signing fringe roster free agents to deals above the minimum so that when they DFA them, other teams won't claim them.

All of these funky contracts and all this roster churn serve one purpose: to keep as much talent in the Orioles organization as possible. Overall, this is a good thing. As a fan, you want your front office to be constantly trying to win on the margins. These seemingly small moves can add up to much-needed wins, but they can go too far.

The Orioles risk losing important games early in the season by not putting their best foot forward in the bullpen

Last week, the Orioles optioned Anthony Nunez and Cameron Foster. They didn't do that because Nunez and Foster aren't two of the best eight bullpen arms on the roster; they did it because they have the most options.

If Mike Elias were administered truth serum, he would tell you that Nunez is better than Jackson Kowar, who is now lined up to snag an opening day roster spot. Why would the Orioles willingly give a worse player a roster spot?

Because Kowar is out of options. The Orioles know that if they choose Kowar over Nunez, they get to keep both of them in the organization; if they were to choose Nunez over Kowar, they would risk losing Kowar. They value having Kowar in the org enough that they're willing to have their bullpen be a little worse.

It's highly unlikely that Kowar survives the entire season on the active roster. The Orioles know they're going to DFA this guy at some point; they're just trying to avoid doing it at the end of spring training, when he's more likely to get picked up by another team playing the waiver-wire roster churn game.

Again, smart teams do stuff like this because they are trying to win on the margins. The issue for the Orioles is that their bullpen is in a precarious spot. They are relying on a bunch of guys who are hoping to "bounce back" or have been recently cast off from other bullpens around the league. There is not a lot of high-end talent in the group. They could really use an ascending player like Nunez, who has the potential to be a stud, and instead they are likely rolling with the journeyman Kowar, who has a much lower ceiling.

The Orioles ' early-season schedule is relatively easy, and if they want to give themselves a good shot at winning the division, they need to stack wins early. By not putting their most talented arms on the major league roster, they are gambling that they'll be able to make it by. The risk is that they blow multiple games because their bullpen is weak, and the reward is a few more weeks of Jackson Kowar.

It's understandable to want to stick to their process, but it feels like they're really pushing the limits with this bullpen. The games at the beginning of the season count just the same as the games at the end of the season, and if the Orioles blow games early in the year because they were trying to get cute with their roster management, rather than putting the best possible team on the field, that's going to be tough to stomach for